USDA Trend Continues
Thursday, September 3, 2015

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The United States Department of Agriculture Veterinary Medical Officers continued their trend of disqualifying horses at this year's Celebration that had previously passed inspection by those same VMOs.  On Wednesday evening, the USDA disqualified 12 horses that passed inspection by the SHOW Designated Qualified Persons.  Those 12 horses had previously passed inspection 49 times in 2015 with the USDA present for 32 of those inspections or 65% of the time.

For the seven evening performances that is 125 horses disqualified that had previously passed inspection 550 times in 2015 with the USDA VMOs in attendance conducting inspections 330 times.  There were 81 entries on Wednesday night presented for inspection and USDA VMOs took information on 10 potential scar rule violations.  The USDA has taken information on 99 potential scar rule violations in 850 entries or 11.5%.  This is compared to a 1% rate during the season prior to The Celebration.

The subjectivity of the inspections is continuing to be highlighted by the inconsistencies of the VMOs during the show.  On Wednesday evening, four of the 12 horses disqualified had already passed inspection by USDA at this year's Celebration.  All four of those horses were disqualified for potential scar rule violations.  Two of those four horses had passed inspection the night prior, Tuesday evening.

Also, four of the horses were passed pre-show for compliance with the scar rule only later to be disqualified post-show for a potential scar rule by the same VMO that passed the horse pre-show.  Although 125 horses have been disqualified by the USDA, none of those horses have been proven to have a violation.

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